Over on r/chastitytraining, a chastity neophyte asked a question about flying while locked. It seems fairly straightforward and I’ve certainly touched on it in the past, but let’s get everything into one post for future reference.
Note: This post is written from an American POV for travel within or from the United States. If you’re traveling in another part of the world, you’re on your own.
The TSA
The first thing you need to think about while traveling by air is, of course, the Transportation Security Administration. They’re the ones you need to get through at nearly every airport in the United States. Turns out, twenty airports don’t use the TSA and manage security themselves. Presumably, what I’m saying here applies there, too, but I don’t know for certain.
There are two kinds of scanners at airports in the US: metal detectors and millimeter wave scanners. Most people will go through the scanners. If you’re wearing a chastity device, the scanners absolutely will pick it up. Every single time. What happens next is, in my experience, up to the whims of the agent you get.
Sometimes, nothing will happen. The agent manning the scanner will wave you through. Sometimes, the agent will pat you down. A couple of times, I’ve had them pat me down on the opposite side of the device. Basically, they touched my lower back then sent me through.
My theory is that TSA agents see chastity devices all the damned time now and are tired of the hassle. The lower back pat down is, for me, a dead give away. They know which side of the body the hard object is on. They choose to pat on the other side. I read that pat as, “We’re good, you kinky freak.”
Every single time except one I went through the scanner locked up, this is what happened. That one other time I got groped in the device by the agent in front of the scanner and then had to show it to three guys in a back room. So you need to ask yourself…are you feeling lucky? Are you cool showing your entire device, balls and all, to three strangers?
Note, I have never ever heard of anyone being denied entry to the airport, even those guys wearing metal devices. Maybe it’s happened, but I’ve not heard of it.
The other kind of security mechanism is the metal detector and you only get to use those if you have TSA PreCheck. If you’re wearing a plastic device, even with a small brass lock, it won’t pick up that you’re packing. However, be aware of how much metal is on your body. If you’re wearing a watch or a belt or jewelry, or even pants with many metal snaps like cargo shorts, you will set it off. It’s calibrated to be very sensitive. If you set it off, you will go through the millimeter wave scanner. See above.
Also, as literally just happened to me today (I’m writing this in the Delta SkyClub at MSP), you may be randomly selected for a scan anyway. I don’t know how it chooses, but the metal detector is set to randomly pick someone for the scan. If you do, see above.
I know some people with PreCheck who still don’t go through locked because they don’t want to lose their PreCheck status. I have no idea if that’s a possibility, but that’s a thing.
Connections and arrival
Once you’re through security, you’re usually good. The question the guy on Reddit had was if you were checked upon arrival. No, that’s not a thing. Not in the US and not in any of the several international destinations I’ve flown to (Europe and Asia as well as Canada and Mexico).
Domestic connections rarely involve going through security again, even if you’re connecting through a different terminal. But, the one time I got caught, it was connecting through O’Hare when we were bussed from one terminal to another and left the secure area. This was due to construction on the trams or something. So it’s not guaranteed you won’t be faced with more TSA agents. Also, in this scenario, they didn’t have PreCheck at the temporary security station, only scanners for everyone.
When connecting through an international airport, it’s sometimes been the case that when the destination is another airport inside that country at a different terminal, there is another security check after passport control. But, in Europe at least, I only remember ever going through metal detectors. If you’re connecting to another international flight, chances are you won’t go through another security checkpoint.
Upon arrival at a final destination, I have never had to go through security again. Certainly not domestically and never to my recollection internationally.
Other places
I usually travel in plastic devices because I can never be sure if I’ll be presented with random security checks at tourist attractions. I remember one time going to the World Trade Center observation deck in the Steelheart and getting wanded and patted down by the security guy who never actually touched where the device was and eventually just let me through. As I said above, plastic devices even with a metal lock won’t set a metal detector off. Especially since detectors outside of airports usually aren’t set to be as sensitive.
What I do
I’ve stopped wearing devices through security. I just don’t want the hassle. Nothing at all bad will happen, but it’s just easier. At MSP when it’s not busy, I can usually take the device off in the restroom right inside the terminal, go though the checkpoint, then re-lock right after and I’m only out for 15 minutes or so. At most, it’s like half an hour. I have heard of some people permanently locked in titanium who never take it off and travel frequently and just put up with it. That’s not me. I was a lot more willing when I was younger.
Which reminds me, there was a time when people thought titanium wouldn’t set off the metal detectors. That’s not true. My titanium device absolutely will (I got a hand-held detector to test it). And if you go through the scanner, it’ll light up like Broadway.
So, that’s what I got. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.
I am reminded of my days working in hospital management, and patients who would be reluctant to go to Emergency for fear of being judged or mocked or thought less of. The truth is that those professional health care folks have seen it all — if not to the point that it all has become blasé. As a physician once said to me that he believed in a God that has more interesting things to do than micromanage the sexual adventures of a few billion souls.
So, I would argue one should never be embarrassed out or about his cage.
I am in the same camp with Thumper, that I do not want the hassle, so I will unlock for the brief period of airport security. I am confident that during those brief interludes I have no fear of falling off the wagon as it were; but I have to admit that on some emotional or spiritual level it seems as if I feel less than whole — that something is missing — when I am out of my cage.
I wish I could find some more elegant or noble way to describe the feeling. I think each man has his own personal relationship with his cage, but there is something about being caged (and without one’s cage) that only another caged man would understand.